The Urban Buffet is on the corner of Nelson and Homer. It looks a little creepy on the outside. On the inside the huge old building is glowing with neon lights and the glare off of deep fried this and that. However, once we were quickly seated and we dove in for our first round of eating, the nervousness subsided.

Vancouver’s Urban Buffet offers a strange selection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and American cuisine. Basically it’s a lot of fried food, some sushi, and the required jello and roast beef. Granted, for $8.99 for a huge meal, I couldn’t have asked for more, and I left feeling perfectly disgusting.

Most of the food sort of tasted the same. Actually, it all tasted exactly the same. From the fried chicken balls to the cake to the soft serve ice cream, there was a distinct flavour running through it all. Hold on, I’m not saying it was bad. I only had one thing that I really couldn’t stomach (avoid the weird bready dessert ‘treats’). It’s actually kind of pleasant. The spring rolls and fatty noodles and broccoli were tasty, plentiful, and, best of all, the booze (not included in the price of admission) is dirt cheap!

Sure, for 8.99 you could go to Glowbal and have half a martini, but how fun is that? If you are in the mood for a disgusting all you can eat sort of experience, and have value in mind over taste, then head down to Yaletown’s finest (and only) buffet.

Address:

996 Homer Street
Vancouver, BC
604-630-1188

This place is a little bit hard to see from street-level as it’s on the second floor of a building on Robson. There’s pretty good signage, so once you notice the place you should only need another minute or two (if you’re like me and you suck at common sense things) to find the stairwell that takes to you Tsunami Sushi. It’s well worth the effort- trust me. There is also a fabulous patio that’s perfect for afternoon sake with a view of the shopping crowd.

Tsunami Sushi is very much like most other sushi restaurants- not particularly original in its decor (in fact a bit retro), rather quiet, and there are people in Kimonos; however, there is one differing factor. There is a creek in the centre of the restaurant that circulates little wooden boats full of sushi and other Japanese items. You can basically saddle up to the bar, and in front of you sushi will just float by. You can pick up whatever you like and the boat will float away empty until it is refilled by one of the several staff who work in the centre of the circuit. The plates on which the sushi arrives are color-coded (i.e. blue plates are $2.00, black $3.50, etc.) and you simply tally up the number of plates you have to figure out the bill at the end. This, in my opinion, is just so cool. There’s no other word for it.

The novelty of this creek will wear off as you eye a plate of tekka maki slowly making its way down the line while shooting daggers at the hungry overweight dude two seats down. There is, however, no denying the empowerment one feels when getting to see a product before ordering it and then receiving it instantly. You can’t assign a value to instant gratification like this.

The sushi here is pretty awesome too, and there are a number of selections that you will not find as easily at other more standard sushi places- sea urchin maki among them. Just make sure to arrive around a normal mealtime, as the creek floats fewer rolls at three in the afternoon. There’s no reason you can’t proceed with ordering as you would normally though. Also, keep track of your plates. It’s easy to eat and eat and eat, and then realize your plate stack is $10.00 more than you thought.

Address:

238, 1025 Robson
Vancouver, BC
(604) 687-8744